- The Testimony of Peggy O’Neil
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- Saved by Grace at the age of 70 after practicing as a
Nun for 50 Years!
This is the story of my conversion to Christ at age 70, after practicing as
a nun in the Catholic Church for 50 years. I write this in the hope that it
will help others come to an understanding of the True Gospel of Salvation.
My Early Home Life
I was born in Ballybunion, Co. Kerry in 1921 - the town where the
River Shannon meets the sea. My parents, and all our neighbors, were staunch
practicing Catholics, faithful to all the precepts of the Roman Catholic
Church. The family rosary included the Litany of the blessed virgin, where
Mary was invoked under a number of wonderful titles - Mystical Rose, Tower
of ivory, Ark of the Covenant, Gate of Heaven; to name but a few. In my
home, I was surrounded by religion and Catholic culture in the form of
statues, pictures of Mary and the “Saints,” Holy water, Rosary beads,
Scapulars, Medals, and Relics. The Sacred Heart Lamp was always lit beside
the picture of the family consecration to the sacred heart.
Schooling
At school, I was well grounded in Catholic doctrine. I learned about
the Mass, the Sacraments, the Ten Commandments, and what was forbidden and
commanded by each commandment. To my surprise I found I had only learned
about nine commandments. The second one, which forbids us to make statues,
was left out! In my parish church were some beautiful statues, and on
Sundays after Mass, I used to light a candle before the statue of St. Teresa
of Lisieux, and then I knelt down and prayed to her. Later I went to the
local convent school where many teachers were nuns. I grew up with the idea
that nuns were very special people before God, and their kind of life was
the highest calling for any woman.
Life As A Nun
At the age of seventeen, I said goodbye to my father and mother, my
two sisters and seven brothers and entered the convent. The first seven
years were spent in the south of France, in Beziers, a town whose name has
its way into Church history, not too far from Lourdes. The Order I entered
was dedicated to education. After college training I worked as a
schoolteacher in England for thirty-five years. Side-by-side with my
teaching was my religious life. Before and after school, there were long
periods given to prayer and religious exercises, and Mass every morning in
the convent chapel. During my fifty years as a nun, regardless of the
inevitable ups and downs of life, I was very happy. Happy to believe that I
was following what I then thought was my God given vocation. The vows of
poverty, chastity, and obedience I had made were perpetual and final.
A Life Changing Discovery
All of this changed in 1989 when I saw my nephew with an interest in
the Bible. He also said that he left the Catholic Church. From early
childhood we were told that the Catholic Church was the one true church
outside of which there was no salvation. Why then should my nephew or anyone
else leave it? I loved the Catholic Church, and everything about it, and
implicitly believed all its teachings, never once doubting or questioning
any of them. For me the Catholic religion was the only true religion in the
world, but now for the first time I began to examine the faith into which I
had been born. I soon found that some things I believed were nowhere in the
Bible. Not only were there additions, but also some Catholic doctrines even
contradicted the Bible. Proverbs 30:6 condemns as a potential liar anyone
who would add to God’s Word. (Prov 30:6 KJV) Add thou not unto his words,
lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar. To anyone who would
contradict it, Romans 3:4 says, …let God be true, but every man a liar.”
Could this include the Pope?
As time went on I realized that the Catholic Church had a false gospel - one
that is the exact opposite of the Gospel revealed in the Bible. The Gospel
is the basic, most important doctrine in the Bible, as in it, God makes
known His plan of salvation. Today there are thousands of false religions in
the world and every religion including Catholicism has devised a different
Gospel. A church stands or falls by the Gospel it preaches, at the age of 70
I had no option but to leave the Roman Catholic Church, which for so long I
had greatly trusted.
God’s Plan Of Salvation
God’s plan of salvation was to send a Saviour, Jesus Christ, and
because of Him, He could effect salvation as a free gift for His people. The
Roman Catholic plan of salvation is that God sent a Saviour, but the
salvation He brought us was not complete, nor is it offered as a gift to us.
Added to the work of Jesus must be what we do to save ourselves. The
difference between the True Gospel and the gospel of Rome, is shown by
comparing Scripture with the written decrees of the Council of Trent which
was held by the Catholic Church over five hundred years ago and has not
changed to this day---
Council of Trent
“To those who work well unto the end and trust in God, eternal life is
to be offered, both as grace mercifully promised by God Himself through
Jesus Christ as a reward to be faithfully given to their good works and
merits.”
Romans 4:5
(Rom 4:5 KJV) But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that
justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
From this we can see that the Catholic Church teaches that we have to work
for salvation and in contrast, God’s Word teaches that we do not work for
salvation, but that Heaven will be given to all who believe that Jesus has
done all the work on their behalf.
As a Catholic I knew that Jesus was God who came on earth both as God and
man to save us. I knew many facts about Jesus from reading the four gospels,
and thirteen of the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary gave a daily reminder of
the major events in His life. I knew Jesus as a person, but I did not know
Him as Saviour. I did not know the atoning and saving work He accomplished
on my behalf. The Jesus I knew was a Saviour who left me to struggle all my
life trying to save myself by keeping the Ten Commandments, Sacraments,
Prayers, and Penance. The more I did, the better chance I had of going to
Heaven. I was in fact trying to do what Jesus had already done for me,
hoping that in the end with Mary’s help and that of the Church I would be
good enough to make it to heaven. I did not know that the Bible tells us
that it is “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but
according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and
renewing of the Holy Ghost;” (Titus 3:5 KJV)
All of our good works fall short of God’s standard! “But we are all as an
unclean thing, and all our righteousness are as filthy rags; and we all do
fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.”
(Isa 64:6 KJV)
God’s standard is perfection; God’s standard is Jesus Christ. For us this is
humanly impossible, but the good news of the Gospel is that what God
requires, He has provided! On the cross the sins of His people were put to
the account of Jesus and His perfection was put to our account. His
righteousness in exchange for our sins. At the moment we embrace this
awesome truth God no longer sees our sin but sees us clothed in the
righteousness of Jesus Christ, even the righteousness of God. At that moment
we have appropriated to us a salvation which we can never lose.
After 50 years of serving as a Nun in the Roman Catholic Church I came to
this profound realization and put my whole faith and trust in the saving
work of Christ.
(1 Th 1:9 KJV) For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in
we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and
true God;
Article taken from The Reformer - March/April 2004
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